Keith Lusher 07.31.24
Max Patrucco of Slidell, LA, has been fishing Lake Pontchartrain for over a decade and has caught all kinds of fish, together with speckled trout, redfish, and flounder. In July, Patrucco targets the Trestles practice bridge in Lake Pontchartrain. The 5-mile bridge is a favourite amongst fishermen for its constant manufacturing of sheepshead through the summer time months. Patrucco refers to his annual journeys to the bridge as “Sheepshearding Journeys.”
When Patrucco arrived on the bridge, the tide was incoming and blowing out of the North. Max baited his hook and dropped his line straight down alongside a concrete bridge leg, utilizing a drop-shot rig with stay shrimp. “On my first drop, I felt that acquainted faucet..faucet..faucet. I waited just a few seconds, then reeled my line up slowly,” he stated. “I managed to set the hook and land a 16-inch sheepshead.” As Patrucco was reeling within the fish, he noticed one other sheepshead following the hooked fish, so he hurriedly baited his hook for one more drop.
Patrucco proceeded to catch two extra sheepshead, all keepers, which he tossed into his ice bag. Then he determined to throw out one other line behind his kayak to enhance his possibilities.
As he centered on the pylons to catch extra sheepshead, he heard the reel at the back of the kayak begin to pull. “I heard my drag begin to scream, so I turned again to see my outdated 6.5′ ugly stick within the rod holder doubled over,” Patrucco stated. “I swapped rods and turned to face the again of the boat the place the fish was stripping drag. The big fish had already taken 50 yards of line off of his spool.”
Patrucco fought the fish for over 10 minutes. Upon wanting as much as achieve his bearings, he seen that his kayak had been pulled over 100 yards away from the bridge.
After slowly reeling within the fish, he was in a position to determine it as a Jack Crevalle. He bought the fish close to the boat, grabbed its tail, and hoisted it into his kayak.
“This was the Jack I’ve been attempting to get for the previous few years. That was significantly the most effective battles I’ve ever had,” Patrucco stated.
After the joy, Patrucco resumed catching sheepshead on the bridge and ended the day with over 10 sheepshead and a pair of redfish. One of the best half about fishing Lake Pontchartrain is catching these fish if you don’t anticipate to catch them. “The great thing about fishing within the lake just isn’t understanding precisely what’s on the opposite finish – it might be a jack, a bull crimson, a bull shark, a giant stingray – you simply by no means know,” Patrucco stated.
